The Song of Hiawatha

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1855

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Summary

Background

Canto Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Canto II

Cantos III-VI

Cantos VII-XII

Cantos XIII-XVII

Cantos XVIII-XXII

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The Song of Hiawatha is an epic poem comprising 23 long stanzas, or cantos, with the first being an introduction and the following cantos being titled I-XXII. It follows a strict trochaic tetrameter—eight syllables per line, following a pattern of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable: “Should you ask me, whence these stories” (1.1)? Longfellow believed that this trochaic rhythm mirrored the chants of Indigenous tribes and lent the poem an authentic sound. While this belief may have been an oversimplification, the trochaic meter does jar slightly from what the ear would have been accustomed to at the time of writing—the more typical iambic rhythm, which uses an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable—creating a sense of cultural immersion and authenticity. Some scholars posit that Longfellow was inspired by the trochaic tetrameter used in the Kalevala, a Finnish epic with similarities to Hiawatha.

Repetition

There is extensive repetition throughout the poem, a stylistic device that enhances the song-like quality of the piece. The first canto opens with a type of repetition called anaphora, where the same grammatical construction recurs multiple times for emphasis:

Should you ask me, whence these stories?

Whence these legends and traditions,

With the odors of the forest

With the dew and damp of meadows,

With the curling smoke of wigwams,

With the rushing of great rivers,

With their frequent repetitions,

And their wild reverberations

As of thunder in the mountains (1.1-9)?

Here, the anaphora gives the setting a sense of orderly space where manmade structures like wigwams coexist without disturbing natural geographical features like meadows and rivers. Repetition allows the poet to make the most of the trochaic rhythmic choice, giving the poem an oral quality by simulating features of ancient epics, which typically used repetition as mnemonic devices. The lines feel intoned and ritualistic.

Similes and Metaphors

Longfellow uses figurative language like similes at the line level and metaphors at the broader story level. Similes—comparisons using the introductory words “like” or “as”—are an effective descriptive device in moments like imagining pipe smoke, which the poem shows “Bending like a wand of willow, / Waving like a hand that beckons” (2.53-54), and the gathering tribes, which are “Painted like the leaves of Autumn, / Painted like the sky of morning” (2.72-73). These similes, which rely on vivid, immersive imagery of the natural world, connect Hiawatha’s people to the place within which they reside in harmony.

The poem’s storylines often metaphorize real events. Sometimes, actions become mythological explanations for processes that are otherwise hard to ascribe to a specific person. For instance, the rise of agriculture appears in the poem as the result of Hiawatha wrestling the blond man sent by the spirit Manito—an anthropomorphized representation of the corn that Hiawatha’s people will learn to grow.

Anthropomorphism

To reflect the animism of Indigenous faith—the belief that everything in the natural world has a spirit and should be treated with respect—Longfellow ascribes human traits to a range of animals and plants throughout the story. One vivid example occurs early in the poem: In Canto 2, “The Four Winds,” the South Wind Shawondasee falls in love with a blonde woman in a green dress, but as the woman’s yellow hair turns white, she is revealed to be a dandelion. Portraying the flower in human terms turns this description of summer into a fable-like love story.

The poem also personifies more abstract aspects of the world. Fever and Famine appear as two visitors who crowd around Minnehaha as she succumbs to illness. The personification has two purposes: It demonstrates Hiawatha’s waning strength, since he cannot defeat these opponents like he could other supernatural forces; and their refusal to obey the rules of hospitality presages the eventual betrayal of guestright by the white missionaries that Hiawatha’s people welcome. Later, winter and spring appear as an old man and a young man comparing talents—the old man’s breath turns rivers to ice, while the young man’s breath brings new life to the land. Readers understand these characters as personifications of summer and winter. As a harsh and destructive winter turns into spring, the poem presages new hope for Hiawatha and his people.